Saturday, November 21, 2015

The Holly King

All the hand embroidery is done on the Holly King piece, now I need to decide whether to use it as a wall hanging, a quilt block or something else. As I look at it here I'm wondering if I should have used the crayon tinting on the face too, I'll give it some thought and perhaps make another. I loved stitching this piece.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Stitching Update, Violets and books read

I don't know what gets into me when I see one of these plants looking so lush sitting there on the shelf at the supermarket this morning but I had to buy it.  I haven't had much luck with African Violets but every few years I pick one up and manage to keep it alive for several weeks.

I bought one four years ago when I first moved into this house, I placed it on the windowsill in my living room for a while it did quite well new flowers bloomed as spent flowers were removed. As the weather grew cold I would take it off the windowsill when the sun went down and replaced it in the morning.  That went on for a few weeks until I forgot it was in the window and I was away for a few days and the temps dropped into the 30's and no amount of coaxing could rescue it.

I do love African Violets, they are such a dainty little flower with a subtle scent I pickup when I least expect so I am once again going to try to keep this Africa Violet thriving.

On another note I am making progress on the Holly King Hand embroidery piece I started last month.
I am so glad I decided to crayon tint this piece I think the subtle color makes the threads standout just enough. I am also working on the third Hocuspocusville block which I need to get back to this week, I have been trying to decide whether I want to use black seed beads in place of the french knots on the railings, or bite the bullet and gets lots of practice making french knots.  I don't know what I was
thinking when I drew little circles rather than just make a dot where each knot should go I guess I was so engrossed in the tracing that I just followed the pattern. I do like the idea of using seed beads.

I finished reading all the books in the Amanda Lee Embroidery shop mystery series except for the
newest one, The Stitching Hour, which I will buy eventually.

 I just finished reading Looming Murder today and I'll start the next one Tapestry of Lies next week.